Sunday, 23 June 2013

Gracie loves the outdoors so when she received her very own gardening kit from Moneysupermarket.com she was over the moon and couldn't wait to get outside.

Unfortunately our back garden is still unusable as its awaiting a makeover so we decided we would take the opportunity to do some work on the front garden. We already have a patch of soil underneath our kitchen window which is the perfect place to do some planting. Gracie loved playing in the soil and digging a hole ready for her seeds, once she had done that she sprinkled her seeds into the soil before watering them (her favourite part!)

Gracie was so happy in the garden and it was difficult trying to get her back inside as she kept asking for 'more water' and 'bag'. I don't doubt that she will get lots of use and enjoyment from her gardening kit in the future.

Saturday, 22 June 2013

Don't ask me how it happened but the toddler has some how developed an obsession with One Direction, she loves them and asks for their CD on whenever we are in the car and just loves singing and dancing away to their songs!

Here she is admiring the boys, can you think of a caption for this photo? xxx

Saturday, 15 June 2013

I've heard some people say before that having a toddler isn't that different from having a teenager and that's why when I recently turned to my side to find the two year old holding this pose I had to giggle, i'm not quite sure what was on her mind but she certainly doesn't look that impressed. What do you think?

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Britmums have teamed up with Richmond Mini Meatballs to challenge bloggers to come up with different hassle free meal ideas for their little ones that include the mini meatballs.

I am fortunate that Gracie isn't that much of a fussy eater however that doesn't stop meal times from becoming somewhat repetitive, that's why we were both thrilled to join in with the #Hungry2Happy challenge.

After thinking about what to make for a while we decided to keep it simple and decided on meatball pizza! The great thing about these mini pizzas is that you can change and vary the ingredients as little or as much as you like!

Serves: 1

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 10 - 15 mins

Ingredients:

Mini Pizza Base

Tomato puree

Cheese

Onion

Mushroom

Basil

Richmond Mini Meatballs

How to make in 3 easy peasy steps!

Take a mini pizza base and cover in tomato puree

Then add your chopped basil, cheese, onion, mushroom and meatballs

And pop into a pre heated oven at 220° / Gas Mark 7

and voila! it's as simple as that :)

This post is an entry for Britmums Hungry to Happy Challenge sponsored by Richmond Mini Meatballs.

Sunday, 9 June 2013

I had heard of 'Mummy Guilt' but until I had my own bubba I never really understood the full extent of it. Mummy Guilt in my opinion is the worse kind of guilt that a woman can feel. It's the kind of guilt that can sit with you for days, weeks, months. It's not something that can be shook off or easily rectified. For me, I seem to have spent most of the past two years feeling it.

It all started when Gracie was 4 months old and it was time for me to return back to uni, it was my final year so me and my hubs figured it was best to just power through and get it done, after all it was a means to an end. Only I wasn't just at uni, I was on a 4 month work placement, so in Septermber 2011 I embarked on my final year placement and I relied on childcare to look after Gracie as at the time my husband worked away, my days were so long and I was 'surviving' on about 4 hours sleep, I would get Gracie up at 6.00am ish give her breakfast before dropping her off at childcare and heading to work for 8.30am, I would finish work at 5.00pm (if I was lucky) collect Gracie on the way home and do the bed time routine and then put my laptop on and start working on my assignments, I would finally get to bed in the early hours of the morning before getting up to do it all again. I kept reassuring myself that it was all temporary, that Gracie didn't understand and that she didn't mind that I wasn't there but it never made it easier.

Sleepy Gracie, after her first day at Nursery

After months of assignment writing I finally finished uni, I was so happy / proud and then the hunt for a job started, I wanted a part time job however they seemed impossible to find, after months of searching I was invited to an interview on my birthday of all days but it was full time, by this point we thought this was better than nothing and I was thrilled to learn that I had got the job, the plan was to get my foot in the door, enjoy the two full time wages for a short while and then request to reduce my hours.

Me and Gracie on my birthday last year after my job interview.

A month into me having a job, my husband found out he was facing redundancy and then before we knew it we were back down to one wage, we were grateful for my full time status but the household dynamics changed, suddenly my husband was a stay at a home dad and I was bringing home the bacon (so to speak!) My husband has since got a job however it's part time in the evenings and on weekends, therefore I am still working full time. I have just had it agreed at work that I can compress my hours over four days which is great as I get an extra day off with Gracie but Monday - Thursday are so long, by the time I get home I am already counting down to bedtime which is awful as I haven't seen Gracie all day. How can I feel that way? I wonder how long I can keep this up for, but then what other option do I have? I know I need to be grateful for my job and I know that there are lots of other people in similar positions to me but it still doesn't feel any easier. I read lots of wonderful blogs and see all the fun activities and days out that parents do with their kiddies and I feel guilty, guilty that I can't do the same for my baby. Don't get me wrong, her daddy is brilliant and takes her to playgroup, to the park, for walks etc but I want to do it, it might sound sexist / stereotypical and I don't mean it to be but I can't help the way I feel.

Saturday, 8 June 2013

It's been a quiet week on the blog this week. I started my new work pattern and I now do 37 hours over 4 days, which means longer days and by the evenings I've just been shattered. Anyway the reason I am doing these compressed hours is so I can have an extra day off with Gracie each week and that got me thinking about when she was born, it was a much more simpler time, I was off work and I saw my baby every day. I thought this week I would share one of the first photos I had took with Gracie, and one of my favourites :) x

Saturday, 1 June 2013

I was recently looking through my wedding pictures when I came across this pic of me and my dad just before we were about to go into the Church on my wedding day, I had got my heel stuck and couldn't get it out the ground for love nor money so dad came to the rescue! Can you come up with a caption for this pic? :) xxx

Friday, 31 May 2013

Like most mummys I find that lunch time with a toddler can become quite repetitive, that's why when I learnt that Walkers and Tots100 had teamed up to find creative lunch box ideas I was keen to join in with the challenge!

I decided that instead of your 'ordinary' sandwich I would make Gracie some 'Mini Sandwich Kebabs'. I placed mini sandwiches, pieces of sandwich meat, cucumber, tomatoes and of course some hoops and crosses onto a skewer and rested them on a bed of lettuce. I then put the rest of the hoops and crosses into a small bowl along with some of Gracie's other favourite foods.

I think she was impressed as when I showed her the lunch box there was a lot of 'WOW's' and 'Mmmm's' to be heard!

Monday, 27 May 2013

After the past few days I was starting to wonder if we would be getting any nice weather at all this spring. Friday I worked from home - it was so dark outside and all I could hear was the rain on our conservatory roof and the wind filtering through the chimney breast and it was cold, so so cold, in the end I was sat with a cardi, slipper socks, a blanket and the heating on full! so imagine my delight when I woke up on Saturday morning to the sun blaring through my window. We spent the morning trying to decide what to do, we hadn't made any definite plans with the weather being so unpredictable but then the hubster received a text inviting us to a BBQ - perfect!

We headed off with our sun cream, sun hat and sun glasses :) and the toddler finally got to wear one of the new outfits that she got for her birthday.

We were able to enjoy the sun late into the day and I particularly enjoyed this view something we don't seem to see often anymore!

Gracie loved the BBQ food and especially loved spending time in the garden. (Our garden is currently undergoing a makeover so we don't get to go out in it at the moment!)

All in all it was a fairly quiet bank holiday weekend but sometimes they are the best kind :)

How did you spend the bank holiday weekend, I hope the weather was lovely where you are!

Friday, 24 May 2013

Earlier in the week me and my husband visited Alton Towers. We usually go at least once a year and this year we collected vouchers out of the sun newspaper which means we got free entry to the park (the only downside to this is that you can't choose the date that you go). Anyway, due to the nature of the rides we decided that we would leave the toddler with her Grandma, it wasn't until we had been there about an hour that I realised it was the first time we had done anything on our own, as a couple for a long time!

We decided to ease ourselves into the rides starting with the runaway mine train before heading off to some of the more 'adventerous' rides including sub zero, air and the Nemesis, things were going well until we went on the Nemesis and suddenly I felt really sick...

Waiting for Air

Scary 'bloody' water...waiting for Nemesis

Nemesis 1 - Katie 0 :-/

We decided we go and grab some dinner. There are lots of different eateries in the park but we chose to visit 'Pizza and Pasta' for £9.75 each we got unlimited pizza, pasta, salad and drinks. I have to say the food was YUM!

We then spent the afternoon going on more rides including the rapids and log flumes.

Rapidsssss

Not too wet, probably because he used his wife has a human shield to avoid the water!!

SOAKED!

We then decided to follow our inner child's and visit the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Ice Age attractions.

Hubs insisted on visiting the parks brand spanking new ride 'the smiler' - he was so sad that we missed the launch date by 2 days, however as he says its gives him a reason to go back later in the year :)

Despite the weather we had a brilliant day, the queue times for the rides weren't very long which was a bonus and the park as some lovely attractions as you walk round too.

And of course we can't go anywhere without bringing a little something back for the toddler. The only problem is we can never find anything with the name Gracie on so instead we opted to personalise her new cup with a daughter label.

Do you like theme parks? If so which is your favourite? I would love to hear from you :)